Mitchell man sentenced to prison for drunken fatal crash

Mitchell man sentenced to prison for drunken fatal crash

Oct. 21, 2017

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A 24-year-old western Nebraska man has been sentenced to three years in prison for causing a crash last year that killed a passenger in his pickup truck.

Joshua Bolzer, of Mitchell, was sentenced Friday in in Scotts Bluff County District Court. He had pleaded no contest in late August to felony vehicular homicide after prosecutors dropped two related counts.

Authorities say Bolzer had been drinking and was driving 120 mph in his pickup truck on Aug. 20, 2016, when it went out of control on U.S. Highway 26 on the west edge of Mitchell and hit a utility pole, a tractor and a liquor store.

A passenger in the truck, 19-year-old Dereon Betancur, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other 19-year-old passengers were hospitalized.